Determine whether cellular immunity can be induced by this vaccine in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study.

At the time of diagnosis, patients undergo tumor cell harvest. Patients also undergo bone marrow aspiration to collect mononuclear cells to obtain dendritic cells (DC). If insufficient DCs are obtained, patients undergo leukapheresis to obtain a sufficient number of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The PBMC are treated in the laboratory with sargramostim (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 for 5-7 days to produce DC. Leukemic blasts are fused to DC to generate the dendritic/leukemic fusion cell vaccine.

Patients then undergo standard induction chemotherapy to obtain a remission, followed by standard consolidation chemotherapy.

After completing consolidation chemotherapy, patients receive autologous dendritic and leukemic fusion cell vaccine subcutaneously every 2 weeks for a total of 4 doses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3 patients receive escalating doses of autologous dendritic and leukemic fusion cell vaccine until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 5 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 3-9 patients will be accrued for this study.

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00100971